The Other American

This critical biography of the American thinker Michael Harrington tracks Harrington's beginnings in the Catholic Worker movement, his abandonment of his once deeply-held Catholicism, his life in 1950s Greenwich Village and his evolution as a thinker.

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The first serious biography of "the man who discovered poverty" offers new perspective on the recent history of the American Left.. Maurice Isserman's bracingly honest, surprisingly touching biography traces the life of one of the heroes of the American Left and one of our country's most influential social critics and poverty experts. Most Americans first heard of Michael Harrington with the publication of The Other America, his seminal book on American poverty. Isserman expertly tracks Harrington's beginnings in the Catholic Worker movement, his abandonment of his once deeply-held Catholicism, his life in 1950s Greenwich Village, and his evolution as a thinker. Along the way Isserman dispels numerous myths, including several Harrington himself encouraged. And Isserman explains why Harrington, who more than any other single individual seemed perfectly positioned to play the role of adult mentor to the New Left in the 1960s, instead fell into disfavor with young campus activists, and lost the opportunity of a lifetime to make his democratic Socialist perspective a relevant force in American politics.
Maurice Isserman's bracingly honest, surprisingly touching biography traces the life of one of the heroes of the American Left and one of our country's most influential social critics and poverty experts. Most Americans first heard of Michael Harrington with the publication of The Other America, his seminal book on American poverty. Isserman expertly tracks Harrington's beginnings in the Catholic Worker movement, his abandonment of his once deeply-held Catholicism, his life in 1950s Greenwich Village, and his evolution as a thinker. Along the way Isserman dispels numerous myths, including several Harrington himself encouraged. And Isserman explains why Harrington, who more than any other single individual seemed perfectly positioned to play the role of adult mentor to the New Left in the 1960s, instead fell into disfavor with young campus activists, and lost the opportunity of a lifetime to make his democratic Socialist perspective a relevant force in American politics.
*The first authoritative, critical biography of an important American thinker, by one of today's most important historians of the Left Harrington's ideas on poverty and social justice are just as provocative today as they were forty years ago * For anyone interested in American Studies, post-war American social thought, the history of radicalism, or issues of social justice.